Archive for the ‘abramelin’ Tag

It seems like every year or two, I find it necessary to post a rant about Abramelin and some of the boneheaded stuff I encounter out there in relation to it. So, here is the 2014 Abramelin Rant (originally posted to my Solomonic Facebook Group):

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It has taken several years, but I have finally learned an important lesson: I will no longer answer questions via email for anyone actively undertaking the Abramelin operation.

I’ve tried it more than once now, and the result is the same every time. It’s relatively easy to guide someone through the initial months – it mostly involves telling them to stick to the process as the book outlines it, without adding anything or altering anything. That, and to provide some moral support along the way. I figured it couldn’t harm anything for me to be available to answer questions – I would have killed for such a resource while I performed it myself.

But… then comes time for the final days of the process, when the actual Rite is performed (the Day of Consecration, the Convocation of the Angel and the Convocation of the Spirits). And so far, every single time, I discover that the person I was trying to help has prepared for *nothing.* I get questions like, “Oh? There is a silver lamen? Where does the book mention that?” Or “So what kind of robes do I need?” Or, even better, “Now how do I go about summoning the spirits?”

Nearly as sure as clockwork, I discover that the person I was trying to help has utterly failed to study and understand the Book of Abramelin *before* they begin the process. My favorite one to date was when an aspirant wrote to ask about the Abramelin Oil. You see, they were having a hard time affording all the ingredients needed, because they needed a lot of it, because they were **burning the Holy Oil in the Lamp**!!! [Sound of Aaron repeatedly banging his head on the keyboard…] When I revealed to them that the Holy Oil is not used in the Lamp, they asked me “Oh, so what will it be used for, then – and how often?”

I’m tired of answering questions that are addressed in the very book itself. And I’m tired of people reaching the grand finale of their operation only to turn to me as if I’m going to do the Work for them (or at least hold their hand) in the end. I sure as hell can’t (and won’t) teach you the art of summoning spirits (via email no less!) over a few days before you’re expected to summon them yourself. Why the f**k wouldn’t you have thought of that before you decided this path was for you? For that matter, why would you undertake this ordeal when you clearly haven’t even read the book all the way through??

I don’t mind answering Abramelin questions – but it will have to be here on the public forum, and it won’t be for anyone who is currently in the middle of the process. Yikes.

Nephilim Press will soon publishhas now released a brand new anthology entitled The Holy Guardian Angel. It is a collection of essays about the HGA by various occultists (some you know, and some new names as well) – including me! :)

The Holy Guardian Angel

My contribution is called After Abramelin: Working With the Holy Guardian Angel. If you remember my older essay, The Spirit-Magick of Abramelin, this new essay is its direct counterpoint – explaining how one is supposed to work with the Guardian Angel after completing the Rite.

Here are the introductory paragraphs of my essay:

After Abramelin: Working with the Holy Guardian Angel

The Book of Abramelin is a German magickal text supposedly written by Abraham von Worms in the 1400s. It contains a method of invoking and permanently bonding with one’s Holy Guardian Angel. The angel…

Some time ago, I was asked by Scarlet Imprint to write something about demonology for their anthology entitled Diabolical. So, I wrote a lengthy essay called The Spirit Magick of Abramelin – giving a detailed overview of the system of goety found in the final book of that grimoire. (More recently, that same essay was published in Hermetic Virtues Magazine.)

Later, I was asked by Nephilim Press to write something about the Holy Guardian Angel for their new anthology – Walking With the Angel. So, I decided to give them the exact opposite, and outline the Abramelin system of angel magick. That is, the specific instructions for continuing work with your HGA over a lifetime – instructions which are present but scattered in the original text. Instructions that have remained hidden and unexamined for hundreds of years…

Plus I give a lot of insight into my own performance of the Abramelin operation (specifically its ending) and how I developed my relationship with my HGA over the years that followed.

I’m in very good company in this anthology too! There will be entries from Inominandum, Rufus Opus (in his publication début), Scott Stenwick, and more.

If you want to read the introductory paragraphs of my essay, click here.

Over the years, many students have privately emailed me to ask questions about magick – and one of the most common questions I am asked is “How do I use the talismans at the end of the Book of Abramelin?”

Unfortunately, that is not a question that can be answered so easily in a simple email or forum post. The Book of Abramelin contains a rather sophisticated system of goety – most of it scattered and hidden throughout the text so as to discourage dabblers. In order to explain it all in detail, it would be necessary to write a rather lengthy essay on the subject.

So, in 2009, that is exactly what I did. I wrote an essay entitled The Spirit-Magick of Abramelin that outlines the entire system – including how to summon and work with the spirits, how to create new word-square talismans and how to use them once they are made. I published it in an anthology from Scarlet Imprint called Diabolical – which focused on various traditions of working with demons. (My essay might have been the only one from the perspective of an angel-worker who also works with chthonic spirits.)

The only problem was that the hard-bound Diabolical – though an absolute must-have book – was a bit obscure and somewhat on the expensive side. Students continued to ask me about the Abramelin word-squares and spirits – and I’m not sure how many of them were willing (or able) to purchase the book just to get my essay from it…

Now we are fast approaching the year 2014, and I felt it was time to let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, and release The Spirit-Magick of Abramelin in a more easily accessible format. Therefore, I have re-published the essay in the Autumnal Equinox 2013 edition of Hermetic Virtues Magazine (subscription info here.).:)

Hermetic Virtues Magazine

It is an electronic-format magazine, coming in PDF form directly to your in-box. If you don’t want to subscribe to the magazine (but, really, why wouldn’t you??), I’m pretty sure HV Magazine is willing to sell single-issue copies. So if you desire to learn how to properly work with the talismans and spirits of the Abramelin tradition, you now have an affordable and accessible source for my essay. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Jayne Gibson over at HV, who worked tirelessly to get the word-squares and other formatting issues with this essay exactly right. It was no easy task!

Since I got caught up in the blogosphere, I’m afraid I’ve been sorely neglecting my old Writings webpage. (How old is it, you ask? Check the link below and you’ll see the URL is called “indexaol.html” – because it was originally my old AOL homepage! LOL Now it’s on Tripod, where it has been for what seems like eons…) That is where you can read most of my published essays and book reviews, listen to/read my interviews, find links to my books, etc.

It might seem a bit odd – unless you are Dr. Strange or some other magickal denizen of the comic book universe – to associate modern occultism with straight-up super powers. And we’re not talking about something metaphorical like “to become more than human” – which means to become a self-actualized metaprogrammer who is literally awake inside their own skull. Nor are we talking about operative magick by which we invoke the spirits to manifest things that we need, or protect us from harm or even to heal the sick.

No, we’re talking about a belief in Hollywood-style super powers – like the ability to fly, dodge bullets, shatter prison walls, transform substances*, to live without food or water, direct lightning, become (literally) immortal and more.

(* And by “transform substances”, I don’t mean alchemy or anything spiritual like the Eucharist. I mean things like transforming illegal substances – locked in evidence lockers – into harmless legal substances to upset court cases. And, yes, that is an example of a claim I recently heard.)

Yes, it seems quite odd that anyone could approach magick from this kind of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons or Hollywood fantasy standpoint – and take themselves seriously, let alone anyone else take them seriously. But it happens – maybe even more than you think it does. There are even would-be gurus out there who promise those kinds of super powers to their followers – for a price – and it appears they are not lacking in signed checks to cash, either.

Just this week, I have been dealing with one of these types on the Abramelin Yahoo Group. He swooped in from nowhere, his long cape fluttering in the winds of the Hoary Hosts of Haggoth, to inform the entire group (and especially me) that we don’t have a gnat’s ass clue what we are talking about. Where we discuss a “faux-HGA” that slowly guides and teaches an aspirant in the mysteries of magick, the real HGA is supposed to appear and (like Aladdan’s Genie) grant one instant super powers and unlock all the “secret keys” to make use of the Abramelin word-squares and even the Seals of Solomon.

The mere fact that we are sitting around discussing the HGA on a Yahoo Group, says the Great Master, illustrates that we don’t have a clue. He is here to (and I quote) “keep it real.” He “knows people” who can wave a pinkie finger and deadlock juries, dodge bullets, transform illegal substances and more. Not only this, but according to him real magicians don’t read books, nor should any who do read or write books be taken seriously. So not only does your Holy Guardian Angel make you a thunderbolt-wielding super hero, but you have to be illiterate to even get there. lol

Ok, yes, it’s funny and we can easily laugh at someone who is so obviously entrapped in his childhood fantasies. But there is also a more serious side of the coin: sometimes these types of people get their followers hurt or killed.

Peregrin Wildoak recently wrote his own blog article on this subject. In it, he brings up the practice known as “Breatharianism.” This is a practice whereby one gazes into the Sun each morning – a little at first, but increasing the time each day until one is staring into it for nearly an hour or more. The goal is to eventually take all of your necessary nutrients directly from the Sun, and leave behind your need for food or water. Why, I even read one article that suggested it would also give you psychic powers, telepathy, the ability to bi-locate and much much more!

And before you scoff at the very idea anyone could fall for that kind of nonsense, you should know that people have bought into it and even died in the attempt. One Breatharian leader was even challenged to prove she could go for a mere seven days without food or water - and the experiment was called off a few days in, as her body began to break down and lawyers told them they could be legally culpable for her death. She, meanwhile, spent the entire time insisting she was just fine and wanted to continue!

It is people like this that drag the entire subject of occultism down into the mud. Sometimes they get people hurt or killed. But most often they just swindle people out of a lot of money. You don’t know how many times I’ve been contacted by people who went to a self-proclaimed “healer” for a cleansing, only to be shown some kind of stage-magic trick and told they were cursed – a curse which could be removed for several hundred dollars. (And then several hundred more, and then…) Just read through the comments made on my Egg Cleansing post for a few examples. And they are just a few I’ve been able to warn away from being taken – I shudder to think of how many aren’t so lucky.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I know we’re dealing with a gray area here. As one who practices “operative magick” – that is magick done to make things happen in the real world – I know there is something of a fine line to walk. I deal with angels and spirits as if they were as real as you and I. I speak about jumping between realities as easily as an episode of Sliders. I speak of doing magick to bring money or physical objects when they are needed. I believe in curses and possession and hauntings, as well as in my own knowledge of how to break them.

Besides, miracles do happen. Maybe some of those old Saints or Eastern Gurus really did manage to levitate. Maybe Jesus really did raise Lazarus from the dead. Hell, for that matter, maybe Dee really did brew up a storm and sink the Spanish Armada. Anything is technically possible, so far be it from me to call every claim ever made hogwash. I’ve certainly seen my share of physics-defying events – blessed salt turned into pure light, disembodied sounds, ghosts. Why, once I even time traveled (though it only lasted a second and I was not apparently physically present in the time/place I traveled to).

But I find the charlatans are usually the ones insisting on the super powers. They’re trying desperately to sell you something, or to sell you on something. They, like our “Dr. Strange” from the Abramelin Group, loudly proclaim everyone else to be false pretenders while only they have access to the True Secrets of the Universe(tm). (And, most often, they follow that with a promise to teach them to you, and where you can send your check or money order…)

Real spiritual leaders will likely tell you the miracles and magickal powers are mere side-effects of the Great Work. They can happen, but they are something you earn by long years of practice and a hell of a lot of trial and error. And some of the more spiritual traditions (like some Buddhist sects) tell you to avoid them altogether.

Me, I’m striving for miracles on demand! But, seriously, the minute I start claiming that I can “eat sunlight” or fly up to the local 7-11 for a soda – just toss me in a padded room. ;)

I was just alerted to a new batch of old Solomonic manuscripts available online, from the Leipzig University. There are 142 of them in all! The Studies on Magic blog even gives us a list of the books and links directly to them, along with what kinds of images you will find in them (pentacles, seals, magick rings, etc, etc):